I have a notebook which when i switch it on say fixed table parameter and bios error.System halted?

Answer 1

Hi there.
I have a few hundred computers.
I get laptops all the time.
I get the same error that you report, on many laptops, including one I turned on a few days ago. The errors can state different things since every manufacturer has a different BIOS.
This is usually the result of the internal BIOS battery loosing its ability to hold the BIOS settings - HENCE the BIOS error and the fixed table parameter error - the fixed table is usually a list of the cylinders, heads and sectors used by "legal" drives that the manufacturer had tested, and written in the list.
Once the battery dies, the BIOS uses the DEFAULT settings, which would be the wrong harddrive, and usually other settings which would NOT allow the computer to start.
On the laptop I looked at last, there were 4 batteries -- three were the BIOS... One was under the CPU card, spot welded to the green circuitboard. It was a typical 2016. The next one was a welded 2 battery AAAA blister pack, of rechargeable Ni-cads.
The 3rd was a 4 battery sub AA blister pack. The 4rth was the regular laptop power pack. Without replacing all 3 small battery packs, the BIOS would look at the system, and generate a startup error.
The normal laptop will have just one battery for the BIOS, sometimes rechargeable on the older ones, but more the button type on new ones.
You will be able to go into the BIOS on SOME units, even with the power on the BIOS low, however, on some laptops, like some of the IBM thinkpads, if the BIOS battery is low, you CANNOT get further - you simply generate the BIOS error, and the unit hangs dead, and, since I have one, I spent many weeks looking for the error codes. The technical manuals listed hundreds of errors - except that one... I found many people around the world with the SAME problem - usually selling the Thinkpad, for lack of any solution.
Go online and look up the manufacturer, and see if you can find the methods to replace the battery.
Otherwise you are in the position of carefully taking the unit apart to "find" the battery, and replace it... **
IFF you are forced to do this on your own, please note a number of tricks that I have come up with to circumvent ridiculous proprietary battery configurations that you cannot get easily, if at all.
The round, coin "button" batteries are often spot welded to two straps of metal that are soldered onto the motherboard or sub circuitboard.
Do not try to unsolder the straps from the motherboard. Take a sidecutter, or small pliers, grab the corner of the strap on the battery and roll it off, breaking the welded dots. You now have something to attach the wiring to without touching the motherboard. Some battery packs have a shrink tube plastic wrap over the battery, with wires and a plug comming out. Use a click exacto knife, and cut off the plastic wrap, and again, pull the wiring off the dead battery. Cut the leads about 1/2 inch bare wire on the wires, curl them into a spiral, and use a piece of black electrical tape to hold the spirals on the front and back of the battery ( note the + and - of the leads on the old battery ). Then wrap 3 or 4 turns of stretched, tight, black electrical tape over the battery, to hold the leads on snugly. NO soldering needed. If the wrapped battery does not fit in a pre-mounted holder, just stick it in any place it fits - it is wraped with electrical tape anyway, and wont hurt anything.
If you get 2, 3 or 4 Rechargeable NiCad batteries in some custom pack, and they are either difficult to find, expensive, or impossible to find, just remember that a nicad is a nicad is a nicad. You can get typical home portable telephone ni-cad replacement cell in many retail outlets. Choose the pack that has the closest size of battery. If there are 2 cells, use two cells of a 3 or 4 cell package - choose the most common, cheapest one that will fit anywhere in the laptop - it does NOT have to go back in the same spot, or even be together as a unit - you can put one battery in one spot, and a wire over to the other battery in a different spot. As long as the there are 2 nicads, where you took out two nicads, you are fine. If there are 3, ditto, or 4. Wal Mart has rechargeable AAA and AA batteries on the shelf. Cheap. Forget the name brand $128 3 cell, sub AAA package from the computer manufacturer. If the blister pack in the laptop had a special wire and plug, just keep the wire and plug! Create your own battery configuration, and add the plug.
ALSO, to solder to a nicad, you have to be careful. Use a file to bare the top center post, where you will solder to. On the bottom, remove any wrapper on one spot on the edge. Again, use a file to bare the metal in one spot on the edge. NEVER solder a wire to a battery. On the freshly bared spots, use electronic fluxed core solder to put a tiny solder dot on the battery. On the wire you are using, bare the two ends, and, again, melt flux solder onto the wired ends, using too much solder - a little blob on the end would be best. THEN... you put the solder blob on the wire end, on top of the solder blob of the battery, and QUICKLY, melt the blobs together. This reduces the damage and danger of the typical home-user method of taking a bare copper wire on a bare battery end, and heating the entire mess hot enough to explode the battery. There is an oxidized layer on the surface of all battery ends that prevents solder from sticking easily - hence the file and the tiny solder spot - pre- prepared. You are melting a solder-to-solder connection, NOT a bare wire to bare battery connection...
Cover all ends or bare wires with either black electrical tape or shrink tubing, available at electronic hobby shops, etc.
Once installed, LEAVE THE LAPTOP on for 8 hours or so to charge the NiCads, if they are involved. The new batteries should last as long as the original, usually 5 years ( guaranteed ), and typically 8 years. Since you are replacing with standard batteries, the next time they are replaced would be twice as easy.
Tip Number 2: **, taking apart a laptop --- Get some sheets of ordinary printer paper, and some scotch tape, and a pen. As you take apart the laptop, tape each screw, bolt, and braket or part, to the paper. Write where the part goes, and give it a number -- 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. in the order that you take it out. You can use masking tape to put a number on the place that the part goes on the laptop as well. When you put it together, put the parts back in reverse order -- 4, 3, 2, 1, etc, and remove the masking tape if you use part markers on the laptop. Screws and small parts often LOOK identical, but can be different lengths and thread pitches etc. so that putting a longer screw in the wrong spot will go through the circuitboard, breaking or shorting something dead. " Close" does not count!
(( Comments : Answerer number 1 above has a valid point in suggesting that you look for things that are jiggled loose - commonly, the pins of the hardrive, the pins of the memory sticks of rams, and the pins of the floppy and/or the CD tray. These can, if the unit is dropped, and left unused for a long time ( oxidization and corrosion of the pin connectors ), become a problem, since, even if the BIOS battery is correct, if the harddrive is loose, the BIOS will not "see" it and report that the harddrive listed, is not there. Same for the ram. Laptops usually have better bays, with drive caddies that are better designed to withstand movement, and rarely "jiggle" loose, but give this a try. It is more common on a laptop from an unkonwn source or condition, to have the ram or harddrive REMOVED entirely!
Answerer number 2 gives you a link to a Sequel Programming page, which I fail to find any relevance to at all, and a link to a PASCAL and BASIC programming sequence with a list of the BIOS hexadecimal placements of the IBM PC lookup tables. The fact that these are "BIOS" related is probably correct, but since they are outmoded, obsolete, and likely not found on a proprietary laptop, mean that they are just more confusion - rather than help.
If the entire laptop is in one piece, again, I suspect the battery! ))
FINALLY, if you want faster, better details in solving your problems in the future, please give as much information as you can to allow people to give direct, exact, information! If you listed the history of the computer ( whether you just got it, inknown, or had it sit for 3 years unused, etc. ) and listed the model number, you would get exact help, instead of guesses!

Hope this helps you get going !

robin

Answer 2

Here are some guesses. (obviously, you have a serious problem).

- a removable device inside has come loose. If you can open the computer, try to re-seat everything. You might be able to open the RAM access panel and find the loose device and get LUCKY.

- there is some corrupt data somewhere. Try removing the power cable and battery, then restart it.

Notebook computer repair is expensive. Let's say that you bought a NEW ONE today for $1,000. If a notebook computer will last just 7 years, they are worth about $150 per year. So if your notebook is already 4 years old, it is only worth $450 TO YOU. (A 4 year old computer would not sell for that much). YES, you may have paid more, but my point is that you would not want to spend more than $400 to get that computer GOING again. Just BUY new.

Answer 3

I think #2 is better than #1...Try both...{:-{}.